STANDARD guidelines for the shariah court to screen underage marriage applications are in the pipeline as the government seeks to raise the legal age for marriage, said Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. 

Dr Wan Azizah said raising the marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18 was the first step to curbing child marriage.

“That’s why we want to do (it) at the federal level. So that if you want to get married there is a standard operating procedure. You need the child to go for check-ups, check whether there is an element of grooming, get the child to go for psychological checks. 

“The bottomline is the welfare of the child,” she said, after attending the ministry’s Raya open house in Putrajaya.

She was responding to a question on whether there were standard guidelines for the shariah court to screen and approve applications for marriage.

In Malaysia, the legal marriageable age for Muslim men and women is 18 and 16, respectively. However, those below the legal age may marry with the consent of a shariah judge.

For non-Muslims, 18 is the legal marriageable age for both genders but a girl aged 16 can be legally married with the authorisation of the state chief minister or menteri besar.

Critics said with the “loopholes” in the law allowing underage marriage with authorisation, raising the minimum marriage age would be moot.

“For shariah courts, there will be exceptions to certain things like customary marriages in Sabah Sarawak, which you have to take into consideration,” Dr Wan Azizah said. 

She said the next parliament sitting, which will convene on July 16, may be too soon for the Child Act 2016 to be amended to raise the marriageable age for girls.

“I want to reiterate that we are committed to ending child marriage in the future. I have instructed my officers to start deliberations on the changes needed to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 for both men and women.” 

The issue of child marriage came under the spotlight following the recent case of a 41-year-old man who wedded an 11-year-old girl. 

Che Abdul Karim Che Abdul Hamid, who works as rubber scrap dealer in Gua Musang, had taken the girl as his third wife. 

The groom has since defended his marrying the young girl, who is a Thai national, saying he was merely trying to provide for her as her family was poor.

The man is reported to have wed the child in a ceremony in Thailand without the consent of his first and second wives. The solemnisation of the marriage took place on June 18. 

He claimed to have merely entered into a legal marriage that is akin to an engagement, and that the marriage had not been consummated.

The girl, Ayu, who did not wish to reveal her full name, told the media that the marriage was consensual, and that her husband had agreed to let her continue living with her parents for five years. – July 2, 2018.